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Mark Saks, casting director of CBS drama "The Good Wife," is the architect of the most fascinating, pedigreed and counterintuitive roster of guest-stars on television right now.

But in a way, he's got the woman he found to star in the show -- Julianna Margulies -- to thank.

When Margulies signed onto the series nearly three years ago, all hopes of shooting it in L.A. disappeared. The actress's contract stipulated that she wouldn't have to leave the east coast.

"I knew anything she did would have to be in New York," said Saks. "And to have New York as a casting palate -- I thought, 'wow, this is going to be really exciting.' It's just fresher."

Saks' method combines pulling from Broadway, snatching fresh faces and tearing up the typecasting on some of the business's finest actors.

It's a formula that has brought to the legal drama everyone from Michael J. Fox (whose Parkinson's helped inform his character) to Alan Cumming (whose short-arc performance turned into a series-regular gig).

Tonight, Sarah Silverman guest-stars -- in a role that will not include her wearing a ringer tee or making poop jokes. Like we said, counterintuitive.

And part of the reason stars want to stop by is Saks' approach to what casting actually covers.

Witness the judges on "Good Wife." On some procedurals, those roles get slightly better billing than chalk-outline corpses.

On this show, they're played by people like Jerry Stiller and Ana Gasteyer.

"We didn't just want faces on the bench like 'Law and Order,'" said Saks. "We want them all to have individual personalities and be quirky in their own way.

"Now everybody wants to play a judge on the show, especially because they get to come back.People are pitching us almost daily at this point, and then I have my own hit list of people I want to work with."